The Crimson Warlock

by Paulo Meireles Junior

  Mega informed me to take caution when dealing with a Cerberus because the creature’s teeth and tail were poisoned, its claws weren’t poisonous but they were sharp so I was to be careful when I cut it. I decided to try the same approach as the Firefox, mainly to preserve the creature’s paws, that way I could hand it to the guild clerk. Apparently they would buy the monster’s hide if I were to collect it but I wasn’t sure, not with a creature as poisonous as this one. So my plan was to kill it, cut one of its front paws and set the rest of the body on fire, that way no animal or monster would find the dead Cerberus and get accidentally poisoned.

  It was night by the time we left the guild with the promise of completing the quest tomorrow so we could spend a few minutes in their library. I could have gone there today but I was tired, not from the running but my back was still sore, so I wasn’t in the mood to sit around while Mega cataloged the whole library. At this point I just wanted a hot bath, good food and a nice night of sleep.

  Breakfast was amazing, this world had so many different food. I ended up trying a type of bread that I’ve never seen before on Earth and from what the cook told me, there was an ingredient mixed with flour that didn’t exist in my home planet, you learn something new everyday.

  I decided to pay for four days of stay at the inn, my hope was to complete these three gold quests, one a day and go in the direction of the capital the following day, that way I wouldn’t waste time. At the moment I was a little unsure of how to proceed in case something happened at the other side of the border from Heryan. I wanted to find out about the dark magic and the artifacts sooner rather than later, and covering the whole kingdom was difficult, even for me. I asked if Mega had any suggestions and he told me our best bet was to find some kind of transportation magic that allowed me to create either a portal or straight up teleport to a place that I’ve been before. It would certainly help if we find that kind of spell…

  I decided not to think too much about it and instead we set up destination for the plains after we left the city, the map that god gave me was instrumental in finding not only objects but also monsters. As soon as I searched the Cerberus, the results came back pointing me to the exact location of the beast just as it did with the Firefox when I tried.

  The plains around the city were yellowish and I didn’t know if the ground needed sustenance or if it rarely rained towards these parts, it would make sense if it didn’t because the angry clouds of yesterday never ended up in the city, the night was somewhat warm. Animals roamed around the vast plains while I ran in the direction of the beast, I could recognize a cat and some rabbits as I passed by them at high speed, at some point I even saw what it looked like an elk from a long distance. But that was when I was near to the city, as I got closer to the Cerberus I got the sense that animals and monsters could feel its presence and they avoided the creature.

  I approached the black dog that was the size of a small bus and it appeared that the beast was eating something. Trying to stay quiet, I used an 『Arcane Shield』 on myself before going further. This time I invoked 『Arcane Saber』 since Mega told me this Cerberus in particular had no magical resistance. Starting, I didn’t wasted time, as soon as I went in the monster’s direction I summoned 『Water Storm』 immediately followed by 『Water Spiral』 in the beast’s direction. I was a little disappointed with myself that I didn’t let the beast make the first move, but this one had poison so I wanted to finish the battle as soon as it started.

  The Cerberus was focused on its meal when 『Water Storm』 hit it, by the time that the monster knew what was happening, 『Water Spiral』 was creating a hurricane of water and the beast was trapped at the center of the storm, to kill it, I just had to focus my mana to control the water while it violently clashed against the creature, doing damage and tiring it. I did the same thing as before, suffocating the beast before it even had time to attack me. I was going to need more magic in order to combat the boredom if this kept up. I canceled the spells, asked Mega to confirm the kill and used the saber to cut the monster’s paw in order to receive my reward. I then used a spell called 『Firestorm』 to burn the creature, which was a really bad idea because it engulfed the creature in a gigantic tower of fire and when I canceled the spell there was still residual fire in the location, so I had to ask Mega for another water spell to put out the remaining flames, that came in the form of 『Water Splash』 which was a spell made to splash people with water, the spell wasn’t dangerous, it only conjured water and soaked the target in it.

  The journey back to the city was a quick one, but I slowed down when I got to the road to greet travelers that were going in the direction of the capital. As soon as they were somewhat distant, I then resumed my running in order to get to the guild.

  The clerk was surprised by how quickly I handled the beast, so once again I received my reward and removed another quest from the board, this time I would need to kill a mithriill golem. The reward was just one gold and when I asked the clerk about it, she mentioned that I could harvest the golem’s whole body since it was made of mithriill, the scout reported that the golem was bigger than the Cerberus and that would mean that if I found a way to transport the golem and sell its materials I would get at least ten gold for it. A mithriill weapon could go on the market from something like one gold to prices like eight gold depending on its quality.

  She then showed us the library and while Mega did his thing, I just tried to find a book that had a spell to let me either transport the golem to the guild so I could sell its materials or some kind of transportation magic would also allow me to transport the golem to the guild.

  It took Mega almost ten minutes to scan all of the books from the library, but he left me really happy when he told me about 『Teleport』 which was a spell that I could use to teleport to any location that I’ve been before. I could have used this spell today but a little nature walk was healthy. He also mentioned other spells.

  『Protection』 Can be cast at objects to fortify them and protect from dust, water and any kind of liquid. Useful to make unbreakable objects or clothes that do not stain or get dirty.

  『Grand Enchant』 A powerful spell that can enchant objects with other spell effects, can be used to enchant clothes, weapons, accessories and any manner of things, really.

  『Aerial Slash』 sends a powerful wind attack that can cut the target if used correctly.

  『Scan』 Scans living targets and tells me if there is something wrong with them. It can also be used to scan a large area to see if there are living beings.

  Those spells would be very useful to me, the first thing I would do was enchant my backpack with 『Protection』 so I wouldn’t need to worry about rain soaking my things if I had to travel. 『Aerial Slash』 seemed like a very good spell to use against the Golem because the spell could cut mithriill if I concentrated more mana into it. 『Scan』 could be used in conjunction with a healing spell which could help me understand the target’s condition, those spells paired with 『Nullify』 would guarantee that I had the best combo for healing myself or other people in need.

  Golems are interesting creatures, all of them had different materials that could be harvested and due to their rarity, some of them were expensive. Each golem had three cores that had to be destroyed in order for you to kill them. If one of the cores was left intact, the others would regenerate with time. The guild wanted pieces of the three cores in order to confirm the kill, but I think it would be better to just teleport to the guild with the golem so I could sell its materials to them and make some more money.

  Today was a good day to find more spells, Mega also found a few more destructive spells but for now I was going to take it easy. As soon as I left the guild and went to my room at the inn and tried teleporting back to Saurian village and as I suspected, the spell didn’t consume too much mana, the mana consumed was about four times more of the mana required to use 『Water Storm』 and that was because I used it to teleport to a place relatively close from my original des
tination. If I was going to teleport the equivalent of two kingdoms in kilometers, I think I would have to use way more mana than that and I offered a pray to the god that sent me here to thank him for the amount of mana that he gave me as well as the regenerative rate that I seem to have. Seconds after teleporting to Saurian my mana was full again. Mega also came with me on the teleport because we were linked.

  With that in mind I teleported back and explored the city of Elistera for the rest of the day.

  My day started early as I woke up at seven, last night was so warm that I woke up sweating. I decided to take a long bath before getting downstairs and eating breakfast, my target for the day was that Golem, so I ate what I could and rested for a few minutes before teleporting outside of the town, from there I pinned the Golem’s location on the map and walked in his direction for a few minutes. After I was satisfied I started running, otherwise I would lose the day before it started.

  It took us fifteen minutes to arrive near the Golem’s location, the creature was inside a cave at the other side of a forest that separated the cave from the city. I wasn’t keen on the idea of getting inside the cave even though Mega probably could light it up with his brightness. Or I could use a light spell... But none of those options changed the fact that the cave wasn’t that big, besides I could destroy it by using magic inside. The entrance of the cave was tall but not that large and I debated with myself on what to do about it.

  While I was deep in thought the ground started shaking, slowly, then fast, and faster. As soon as I understood the meaning I moved on 『Improve』 speed out of the way just as the mithriill Golem rolled out of the cave and destroyed some of the trees that seconds before were behind me. The creature then got up and faced me with what I wanted to describe as a murderous look, if not for the fact that the Golem had a frozen unreadable expression on its face. Time to fight then…

  “『Arcane Shield』. Let’s test this new spell, 『Aerial Slash』!” and just as I used the spell, the Golem suddenly dodged by crouching and fast rolling in my direction. How can this creature be so fast?

  The Golem turned and came in my direction again, this time I dodged and tried another 『Aerial Slash』 but failed, instead I cut some trees that were in the way. It was kind of making me mad now. I cast 『Arcane Saber』 and under 『Improve』 I matched the beast’s speed trying to slow it down but was still unsuccessful, so I invoked 『Water Spiral』 to try and slow down the beast and while I did managed to slow it down, the spirals didn’t caused damage to the mithriill because the only places that were susceptible to lasting damage were the protected cores of the creature. The creature was protecting itself but because of the water on the ground flooding the place, the beast couldn’t roll around anymore so the creature just got up and under 『Improve』, I took my chance to locate its cores, one on its chest and one on each arm. The Mithriill Golem tried to punch the ground in front of me with its right hand but I was faster, so I just used 『Aerial Slash』 and severed his right arm by destroying its core while his arm descended to the ground. When his arm fell on the ground he backed up a bit before running in my direction, I let him get near and increased my perception with 『Improve』 letting me see him slowly approaching for a hit while I focused, when his hit was about to land I teleported behind him and used 『Aerial Slash』 again to cut his chest core.

  The Golem fell and tried to get up but most of its body didn’t move, I didn’t know if it was because of the chest core destroyed, but I wasn’t going to wait for the creature to gather its forces to attack me, so I put it out of its misery by casting another 『Aerial Slash』 aimed at the creature’s only remaining core. With that, I confirmed that the Golem was dead and canceled the water that flooded the place from my 『Water Spiral』, I then collected parts of the three cores before teleporting to the outside of the guild building.

  As I entered the building I located the clerk I talked with yesterday, approached her and after a greeting, I put the core pieces on the table and let her do her thing. It took some time for the guild’s spell to finish scanning but the results returned as normal.

  “Quest completion confirmed” she said smiling “please wait while we get your money”.

  “Hmm, can you buy the mithriill from the Golem?” I asked.

  “Yes, we can reuse all of the Golem, since the only parts of the Golem that are not made of mithriill are its cores” she mentioned then looked behind me “but where are the materials?”.

  “Ah, wait a moment please, I’ll just teleport to the Golem’s location to get the materials”.

  “Wait, wha---” I didn’t hear the end of her sentence as I was already teleporting to the creature’s location.

  It took a few teleports to get all of the Golem’s pieces and by the time I was finished, all of the guild’s staff and a few adventures were standing there slack-jawed while I tried to talk to the clerk. I got through her surprise after a few moments and mentioned that I could teleport, so gathering materials was easy. Thirty more minutes was the time I waited so they could to weight the creature and calculate the amount of money that I would get. In the end I profited fourteen gold from the Golem’s materials and the one gold from the quest completion, I left all the money in the guild bank because I didn’t need it but I felt good. When I went to check on the board for the last gold quest I couldn’t find it so I asked the clerk and she told me someone requested the quest, I just shrugged and told her since I have the ability to teleport they could reach me through the guild at the capital if some urgent quest came up and they didn’t have an adventurer to take care of it.

  The guild used some kind of magic apparatus to communicate. So if a city’s guild needed attention, other guilds would generally send a few adventurers their way. The problem with that was that most of the time the response wasn’t instant, so there’s where my teleport spell could be useful and I mentioned that. Luna, the clerk then informed me that she would pass the message along the guild network and since I had no gold quests to complete here, I would be heading to the capital soon, she then bid me good travels and I left the building.

  I couldn’t help but compare how much money I made in a few days. If I was to compare the amount of money I made per year on Earth I would be in trouble, in a day here I could make more than I did on Earth while working for a year. Of course, that god played a big part on this but I still got to help people, only differently.

  Mega and I had a talk about what to do next, I had paid for one more full day in the inn but I decided to gain time by traveling, and then he had the best idea. I could travel by 『Improve』 making progress on my journey, memorize a location and teleport back to the inn to sleep in a bed since I complained about my back the last time I slept on the ground. I really wanted to give Mega a present for that brilliant idea. I just needed to rent the inn bedroom for a few more days while I traveled and I could eat a great breakfast and sleep in a nice bed while still making the progress running to the capital. Genius. So I paid the innkeeper for three more days and after I took a bath, I got something for dinner before I went to sleep.

  At 7:47 I was on the road going in the direction of the capital. My plan was to run as fast as I could and save time so I could arrive early on the third day of traveling. I’ve tried to focus on the road and only stop when necessary to eat something or drink water, taking advantage of those times to look at the scenery and feel the air around me. I was born in Canada and although Canada has many forests, I lived in New York since I worked there, my work was my life and the urban city is always loud. I could visit parks all around my city or in Toronto when I visited but this was something different. Running an entire day at high speed and seeing only green plains, forests and wildlife... The sensation was invigorating and I liked it.

  I knew that we made good progress when I looked at the map before teleporting back to the inn in Elistera to rest for the night. Mega and I took time to talk about stuff, I was interested mostly in how he worked. That god said that Mega was compa
rable to a spirit and an artificial intelligence. He didn’t need food or water to live and that puzzled me.

  After an hour of talking I learned that Mega was directly linked to me, as long as I was alive he would be there for me. His mission was, of course, to assist me but he could effectively help me by scouting a place as long as he wasn’t too far from me, otherwise he would be forcibly returned to my location. He could also protect me as he had the power to sense evil. That ability of his was going to be useful in the future. He could use a specific type of magic created by the gods and the only way he could die was if his magical energy drained completely.

  He was a sentient living being so calling him ‘it’ was kind of offensive. He mentioned that the places that we visited until now were good and he made point to observe how people interacted with each other, I had a feeling that he was intrigued by human’s interactions, I guess I should think of humanoids too since there are other races in this world, that only made me interested to see how they interacted with each other too, and then perhaps Mega and I could talk about it. He also mentioned that he felt a sense of drive to complete our mission and I think that was part of his creation. Or could I call it programming? And even then he still observed what he could about others around us. The point was that he also perceived how people felt and wanted to help them even though his primary objective was to complete our mission.

  I liked that Mega wasn’t intrusive and was always to the point but these days I passed working with him I realized that he was too formal and never relaxed, so I vowed to myself to always ask his opinions whenever we saw something new. I wanted to see how he felt about this world and learn about him in general. Since I was stuck with this little guy for the time being, the best I could do was befriend him.

  The second day of our travel went just about as well as the first, I saw a few carriages coming from the capital and going in the direction of Elistera and the scenery didn’t change. I was really impressed by the wilderness I constantly saw while on the road. Well, I could see a few farms too, but they were few and really far in between. Along the roads there were mostly green patches of grass and small animals, not even monsters ventured far from their plains or forests and into the roads where you would find the travelers.